Meng Haoran

Meng Haoran (Chinese: 孟浩然; 689–740) was a major Tang dynasty poet, and a somewhat older contemporary of Wang Wei, Li Bai and Du Fu.

This morn of spring in bed I'm lying,
Not to awake till birds are crying.
After one night of wind and showers,
How many are the fallen flowers!

Quotes

• 春眠不觉晓，处处闻啼鸟；夜来风雨声，花落知多少。
  • This morn of spring in bed I'm lying,
    Not to awake till birds are crying.
    After one night of wind and showers,
    How many are the fallen flowers!
  • "Spring Morning" (《春晓》), trans. Yuanchong Xu

• 移舟泊煙渚，日暮客愁新；野曠天低樹，江清月近人。
  • My boat is moored by mist-veiled rivershore;
    I'm grieved to see the setting sun no more.
    On boundless plain clouds hang atop the tree;
    In water clear the moon seems near to me.
  • "Mooring on the River at Jiande" (《宿建德江》), trans. Yuanchong Xu
  • Variant translation:
    • While my little boat moves on its mooring mist,
      And daylight wanes, old memories begin...
      How wide the world was, how close the trees to heaven!
      And how clear in the water the nearness of the moon!
      • Three Hundred Poems of the Tang Dynasty, trans. ‎Witter Bynner

Quotes about Meng Haoran

• 故人西辞黄鹤楼，烟花三月下扬州。 孤帆远影碧空尽，惟见长江天际流。
  • Yellow Crane Terrace: my old friend bids me goodbye.
    To Yangzhou in the mists and flowers of Spring he goes.
    His single sail's far shadow melts in the blue void.
    All I see is the sky to which the Yangtze flows.
  • Li Bai, "Seeing Meng Haoran off to Yangzhou" (《送孟浩然之广陵》), as translated by Vikram Seth in Collected Poems (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2015)

References

• Song of the Immortals: An Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry, trans. Yuanchong Xu (Beijing: New World Press, 1994), pp. 55–56

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Meng Haoran on Wikipedia